J. Geils Band bassist Danny Klein and his band Full House will perform on Saturday at Riverfront Park in Springfield.

By KEVIN O'HARE

Danny Klein played bass for one of the biggest bands in the world for nearly two decades, played stadiums, had huge hits, closed the fabled Fillmore East and went on an unforgettable world tour opening for the Rolling Stones.

A founding member of the Boston-based J. Geils Band, Klein anchored the R&B-drenched sound that sold millions of albums and became one of the first acts to savor the sweet success of radio rockers who found a home on MTV.

Today, Klein leads his own tribute to the sound of the J. Geils Band, fronting Danny Klein's Full House, a band he formed in 2006 with several of his blues lovin' friends.

Along with several other acts including Wanderers, All Systems Go and the Bay City Rollers featuring Ian Mitchell, Klein's Full House will launch the first Kicking in for Springfield Schools, or KISS, festival at Riverfront Park in Springfield on Saturday.

Working under the auspices of event organizers Am-B-Care ambulance service, the festival is being sponsored by several prominent businesses, including PC Tech Service; Baystate Health; Big Y World Class Markets; Inn Place Hotel; Palmer Paving Corp.; PH Productions; WAQY-FM, Rock 102; WGGB-TV, abc40 and FOX6; masslive.com; and The Republican.

Their goal is to raise $150,000 for middle-school sports programs in the Springfield Public Schools.

For Klein it's one more step in a remarkable career that started in 1966, when he and harmonica player Magic Dick and guitarist J. Geils left Worcester, moved to Boston and expanded their jugband toward a harder-edged, more electric sound.

"I wanted to be an engineer but they never gave me a train or a whistle to blow," said Klein recently with a laugh, in explaining his decision to leave college behind.

In the clubs of Boston - Cambridge to be exact - they met Peter Wolf, a fast-talking DJ working at WBCN, who eventually gave the band its voice. Wolf was then playing in a soul band called the Hallucinations and brought his own drummer Stephen Bladd into the J. Geils mix. In 1969 their lineup was completed with the addition of keyboardist Seth Justman.

"We went from playing little places and then we were playing bigger regional spots," Klein recalled. "We were always very good live and for a long time that's where we made most of our money. We signed with Atlantic Records because Jerry Wexler, who signed us, was a legend. We did 10 albums with them but we never started making real money on albums until the EMI deal and the (1981) 'Freeze Frame' album."

But while those early albums may not have made big money for the band, there were some classic recordings in the repertoire. Their self-titled 1970 debut included a host of masterworks like "Homework" and "Serves You Right to Suffer." But it was two live albums, 1972's "Full House," and 1976's "Blow Your Face Out," that put them on the map to stay, thanks to house-shaking versions of tracks such as "First I Look at the Purse," "Whammer Jammer," "Musta Got Lost," and "Detroit Breakdown."

They played everywhere, but among their most famous gigs was the co-headlining blow out with the Allman Brothers Band that closed Bill Graham's legendary Fillmore East in New York City.

"Bill Graham was always fantastic to us," Klein said, "One of the first big gigs we had out of New England was at the Fillmore East with Black Sabbath. It wasn't really a great combination; we were getting booed the first night. But Bill came out on stage during our set and said 'If you want your money back, we'll give you your money back. If not, then shut the (expletive) up and listen to these guys.' By the end of the weekend we were getting encores."

The band peaked with "Freeze Frame," and its No. 1 hit "Centerfold." The J. Geils Band proceeded to tour with the Rolling Stones in front of the biggest crowds of their career, but eventually split up in the mid-1980s.

Initially, Klein went in a completely different non-musical direction.

He went to cooking school and became a chef. But he eventually missed playing, started back with some local blues outfits and went out on the road backing Debbie Davies. He also reunited with the J. Geils Band for a tour in 1999. In later years, he started playing shows alongside old friend James Montgomery and Klein would get on stage and do a few Geils' songs. That led to the formation of Danny Klein's Full House, "because no one was doing the music anymore."

Klein's band has done very well and he thoroughly enjoys bringing the music from his glory days back to the stage, just like he'll be doing July 25 in Springfield.

And he still finds time to occasionally shake the walls down with his original bandmates from the J. Geils Band. The group reunited for four shows earlier this year, two in Boston - including a high-profile show to open the House of Blues - and two in Geils' other "hometown" of Detroit, where the band has always enjoyed a massive following.

As to whether there could be more J. Geils Band shows down the road, Klein left the door open.

"It's not out of the question," he said.

The KISS event will also include a softball tournament at Forest Park, starting at 8 a.m., and a children's carnival at Riverfront Park from noon to 8 p.m. Music will start at 2 p.m. and run until 11 p.m.

Tickets are $15 and will be available at area Big Y supermarkets. According to the School Department, all donations should be made out to Springfield School Volunteers and KISS Day should be written in the memo line. More information is available online at www.kissday.org